Goodwin v. City of Painesville, No. 14-3120 (6th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CasePainesville Police Department Officers, initially responding to a noise issue, entered the Nall apartment and tasered Mr. Nall for a total of 26 seconds. During the tasering, Nall began foaming at the mouth, stopped breathing, and went into cardiac arrest. He was rushed to a hospital, where he remained for two weeks. As a result of his cardiac arrest, Nall suffers from anoxic brain injury—injury to the brain due to lack of oxygen—and his mental functioning remains greatly impaired. Both Nalls were charged with disorderly conduct as a result of the incident, though charges were later dropped. The Nalls sued, alleging several constitutional claims under 42 U.S.C. 1983 and several state law claims against the Officers. The Officers unsuccessfully sought summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity for the federal claims and immunity under Ohio state law for the state law claims. The Sixth Circuit affirmed. Warrantless entries based on the emergency aid exception require both the potential for injury to the officers or others and the need for swift action. Whether the facts of this case meet those criteria cannot be answered on summary judgment because the pertinent facts are in dispute.
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